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Florida enters 2013-14 under cloud of uncertainty

Florida coach Billie Donovan talks about his team with the media during Florida's media day in Gainseville, Fla.(Photo: Phil Sandlin, AP)

Story Highlights

Florida reached the Elite Eight the past three seasons

Scottie Wilbekin will be allowed to start practice with the team after a suspension

Will Yeguete, who had two knee surgeries and is still trying to come back, won't start practice

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — One thing is certain when Florida's basketball team, which has reached the Elite Eight the past three seasons, opens practice Friday. There's a lot of uncertainty.

Scottie Wilbekin, who is expected to be suspended when the season starts because of two offseason undisclosed team violations, will be allowed to start practice with the team. He had been suspended indefinitely in June, a second suspension in seven months after missing the start of the 2012-13 season.

Eli Carter, who transferred from Rutgers after averaging 14.9 points a game in two years amid the reports of since-fired coach Mike Rice's treatment of players and was given immediate eligibility by the NCAA, is still coming back from a fractured fibula in his right leg suffered late last season and said at the Gators' Media Day on Wednesday he has no set plan for getting on the court.

"I'm getting better than I was when I first came in, I'm just taking it day-by-day," Carter said. "It's just tight sometimes. It's getting the strength back, that's basically just it. I have no timetable, I'm just hoping to get back real soon."

Will Yeguete, who had two knee surgeries and is still trying to come back, also won't start practice with the team but Billy Donovan said he's less concerned about the senior forward from Florida Air than Carter.

Yeguete (5.5 points, 5.8 rebounds last season) vowed, "I should be ready for the start of the season." But will he be completely back to form?

Add in the uncertain future of recruit Chris Walker, who is trying to get eligible by the start of SEC play in January, and whether Donovan is satisfied that Wilbekin has worked his way completely back in the team's good graces in a few weeks and there's a lot of questions to be answered.

"There's just a lot of unknowns right now how this is all going to come together," Donovan said of the coming weeks, if not months.

Transfers Dorian Finney-Smith (Virginia Tech) and Damontre Harris (South Carolina) are expected to help Patric Young (10.1, 6.3) in the middle, and Casey Prather (6.2, 3.7) is a senior swing player who made big steps last year.

Kasey Hill, like Walker a McDonald's All-American, will run the point at least until Wilbekin earns his spot back and Mike Frazier (5.6, 3.1) will take over more of a scoring role at the shooting guard as a sophomore.

He said Wilbekin, who led the team with 5.0 assists last season and averaged 9.1 points, has "got to get himself reconnected" with the team.

Donovan said Hill is an "unknown" in how he will respond to running the offense.

"That's what I expected when I made the decision to come here," Hill said of being thrown into the fire right away. "That's why I came here."

The Gators open the regular season on Nov. 8 against UNF. Early tough tests include a Dec. 2 game at UConn and a home contest with Kansas on Dec. 10 in the Big 12-SEC Challenge.

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